2023-07-04 18:32:00
Before the mayors of more than 300 municipalities gathered at the Elysée Palace, the Head of State first said he was “very cautious” about the prospect of a return to calm, while considering that the “peak” of First nights was “past”.
He therefore confirmed “exceptional means” to guarantee “sustainable, republican order” and “maintain the effort and the pressure”, in particular on July 13 and 14, around the national holiday.
The night riots broke out on June 27, hours after the death of 17-year-old Nahel, killed by a policeman during a traffic check in Nanterre.
Clashes with the police, burning of town halls, schools, police stations and looting of shops multiplied across France, culminating in the attack on the home of Vincent Jeanbrun, mayor of L’Haÿ-les-Roses in the Val-de-Marne, before a sharp drop in the last two nights.
No unanimity
Thirteen “serious attacks” on elected officials have been identified, said Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
“Even if calm has returned, I consider that we cannot act as if nothing had happened,” insisted the president.
During the meeting at the Elysée, away from the cameras, the mayors tore off the microphones to speak in front of the Head of State, seated and taking notes.
For Patrick Jarry, DVG mayor of Nanterre, “the working conditions and the mission of the police are an essential project”.
The death of young Nahel has reignited the debate on police violence. But despite his imprisonment, the policeman who fired the shot benefited from a movement of solidarity marked by the constitution of a kitty which collected 1.5 million euros and which, after causing a scandal on the left, was to be closed Tuesday at midnight, according to its initiator.
During the meeting at the Elysée, Patricia Tordjman, communist mayor of Gentilly, in Val-de-Marne, challenged the president frontally, believing that “nothing has been done” since he was elected in 2017 , “worse we are withdrawn from the means”.
Jean-François Copé, LR mayor of Meaux, “does not believe in social riots, food riots”. And to estimate: the “Republic does not have to apologize, it has already done a lot for the neighborhoods”.
Summary of Eric Straumann, LR mayor of Colmar (Haut-Rhin), in front of journalists: “right-wing mayors offer right-wing solutions, authority, education, left-wing mayors offer left-wing solutions, more money”.
Speaking at the end, Emmanuel Macron could only note this lack of “unanimity”.
“Group Therapy”
Regarding the destruction suffered by the municipalities, he announced an “emergency law to crush all delays” and speed up reconstruction.
He promised support “to be able to repair very quickly” the broken video surveillance equipment, as well as financial aid for repairs concerning “roads, municipal establishments, schools”.
The government said it was open to “cancellations” of social and tax contributions “on a case-by-case basis” for vandalized businesses. The Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire said that insurers had agreed to “consider deductible reductions”.
According to France Assureurs, 5,800 claims had been declared Tuesday morning following the riots, both by professionals and individuals. A hundred public buildings were degraded or destroyed in Île-de-France, while nearly 80 post offices in the country “could not reopen due to the destruction or the risks for the staff and customers present”, depending on the company.
The Head of State has also opened long-term projects, from housing to decentralization, including juvenile justice and education, without going into detail.
The executive must work on it during the summer “to lead to very concrete solutions”, because “we must not let the dough fall”, he launched at the conclusion of this session which was not without recalling the “great debate” during the crisis of “yellow vests”. He promised a stage point “at the end of the summer”.
Among these projects, he said he wanted to “better support, better empower and sometimes better punish” the parents of child perpetrators of violence. Monday evening, in front of the police, he had considered a “kind of minimum price from the first bullshit” of their child, taking up an antiphon from the right.
“I had come to hear the president give a vision, a course. I had not come to attend group therapy”, said Zartoshte Bakhtiari, mayor of Neuilly-sur-Marne, at the exit, lamenting leaving “with nothing “.
That of Trappes, Ali Rabeh, considered that sanctioning parents was “a gimmicky measure”.
Tuesday at the end of the afternoon, the president was to take stock of the situation with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and a few members of the government.
The Ministry of the Interior noted a new sharp decline in violence during the night from Monday to Tuesday, with 72 people arrested, against up to several hundred at the height of the violence.
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